Crime features in the papers this morning with the end of the Gary Newlove kiling trial and the start of the Steven Wright trial.

The Mail lead with a quote from Newlove's wife

For too long thugs have got away with a slap on the wrist.Until we have a real deterrent more people like my husband will die

The widow of a man kicked to death outside his home demanded action yesterday to stop yobs terrorising the streets.
Garry Newlove's wife Helen told how her family had been destroyed weeks after the couple's 21st wedding anniversary.
The mother of three said her husband would be alive today if the Government and police had done more to curb the behaviour of drunken vandal gangs.

Garry Newlove's widow condemns Government says the Telegraph

Helen Newlove, 44, said she was "absolutely devastated" to learn that the gang's leader, Adam Swellings, had been released from court on bail only hours before the murder in August last year.Swellings, then 18, had pleaded guilty at Warrington magistrates' court, Cheshire, to punching and kicking Paul Collinson, who had complained about him and his friends hanging around his house.

That makes the front page of the Sun

Bailed to kill this loving Dad

She said: “I’m disgusted, it’s unbelievable. They let him walk the streets.He did not take a blind bit of notice of the conditions of bail. He went out, got drunk and my husband was left dead.”

The Mirror leads with

Suffolk strangler victims laid out as if crucified

Mass murder accused Steve Wright "systematically selected" five prostitute victims in a gruesome six-week murder spree, it was claimed yesterday.
The forklift truck driver, possibly aided by an accomplice, was said to have picked the women as he cruised the red light area near his home while his partner worked nights.

As girlfriend worked nights, forklift driver 'hunted women' reports the Guardian

A forklift truck driver "systematically selected and murdered" five young women before stripping and dumping their bodies in isolated spots, deliberately arranging two of them in a cruciform pose with their arms outstretched, a court heard yesterday.
The jury was told that Steve Wright, 49, may have had an accomplice when he conducted a "deliberate campaign of murder" against women working as prostitutes, for a period of six and a half weeks before it was brought to an end with his arrest.
Wright, a former publican who lived in Ipswich's red light district where they worked, denies killing Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24 and Annette Nicholls, 29, between late October and early December 2006. All five died fighting for breath, asphyxiated, while under the influence of the drugs to which they were addicted.

Staying with crime the Telegraph reports

Police admit drunks not deterred by CCTV

Surveillance cameras do little, if anything, to prevent late night alcohol-fuelled crime and violence on Britain's high streets, the country's most senior police officer in the field has admitted.Graeme Gerrard, head of CCTV at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said that although Britain was now a virtual surveillance state, cameras usually failed to act as a deterrent for drunken yobs.

The Express leads with the story that

OUR TAXES PAY FOR LESSONS IN TERROR

MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being poured into financing terrorist propaganda, it emerged last night.
Some of the cash is even being used to fund school textbooks which teach children in Palestine to worship violence and hate all non-Muslims.
The money has also been spent on school books praising the “insurgents” killing British troops in Iraq, a report revealed.

According to the lead story in the Times

Huge rise in traffic choking the roads

Motorists are using cars more and more despite record fuel prices, higher vehicle taxes, and entreaties by the Government for greater use of public transport. Traffic has risen sharply in the past decade in almost every part of England except Inner London, despite the Government’s pledge for a greener transport system, figures today reveal.
In many areas the country’s roads are at saturation point, with drivers now overloading rural routes as they attempt to escape jams.

Conservatives step up attack on 'dead man walking' Hain reports the Independent

Mr Hain came under renewed fire in the Commons yesterday amid Tory calls for his resignation. Answering questions in his role as Welsh Secretary and speaking in a debate as Work and Pensions Secretary, Mr Hain faced a maelstrom of criticism of his handling of the donations affair.
The Tory MP Nigel Evans told him: "Given your growing lack of credibility and the mire which now surrounds you, wouldn't the best prospect for new jobs in Wales be for you to quit your two jobs today?" Another Tory MP, Philip Dunne, described the minister as a "dead man walking".

Brown denies dithering over Northern Rock rescue plan says the Guardian

Accused by Tory leader David Cameron of "dither and delay" over the bank's financial troubles, Brown told MPs at question time in Parliament that the government had pursued the only course of action available to prevent a wider financial collapse. He added that the plan had the backing of the Tory party at the time.
"Northern Rock shareholders and depositors were let down by bad management. It was a bad business plan and you were good enough to say in September that you overwhelmingly supported our action. The action we have taken was to ensure there is stability in the economy. And to ensure that stability we said we would secure the deposits of all depositors in Northern Rock and stand behind the company with support from the Bank of England.

The Independent leads with

The banks' £4bn protection racket

A new scandal is brewing in the personal finance industry that could dwarf the revolt against overdraft charges which has tarnished the reputation of the banks and won customer refunds of £1bn. As the Office of Fair Trading begins a court case against those bank charges, thousands of customers are seeking, and winning, refunds of premiums for payment protection insurance (PPI).

Back to the Diana inquest and the Mirror reports

Paul Burrell blasted for cashing in on Princess Diana

Barrister Richard Keen told the princess's inquest her former butler had cashed in by writing two books and giving numerous interviews based on word-for-word excerpts from the letters.
And Mr Keen poured scorn on Burrell's claim to be Diana's "rock" and confidant - sarcastically telling him: "A rather porous rock bearing in mind what leaked out in interviews and books."

To international news and the Indy reports

Republicans are losers as Romney win leaves the race wide open

His win has done nothing, however, to clarify the struggle between Republican hopefuls. A baffled national party finds itself back to square one in its search for a nominee. Mr Romney may claim momentum, but victories have gone to three candidates in three major contests after Senator McCain won New Hampshire and Mike Huckabee came top in the Iowa caucuses.
This is unsettling territory for the Republican Party, which has traditionally coalesced behind a consensus candidate by now. Instead, it finds itself still unable to choose whom it should be building up. It bodes well for whoever emerges on the Democrat side, but for the Republicans it is an identity crisis deeper than any in decades.

Republicans facing a marathon as Romney victory splits the field says the Guardian

All eyes now turn to Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina. But even in that southern state the party appears to be in the mood more for a muddle than a coronation. Both Huckabee, the ordained Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, and McCain, senator for Arizona, are vowing they will win.

Bus bomb marks end of Sri Lanka truce reports the Telegraph

Sri Lanka's civil war was reignited yesterday when suspected Tamil Tiger rebels bombed a civilian bus, gunned down fleeing passengers and attacked farmers as they retreated into the bush, killing 31 people and leaving 62 injured.The attack, which took place in Buttala, about 150 miles south east of the capital, Colombo, came on the final day of a six-year ceasefire, which had largely broken down before yesterday's attacks.

Outrage as US accuses Britain of inexperience in Taleban conflict
says the Times

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, risked an unprecedented rift with Britain and other close allies after accusing Nato countries fighting in southern Afghanistan of lacking experience in counter-insurgency warfare.
Mr Gates said failings in the south were contributing to the rising violence in the fight against the Taleban.
His outspoken criticism, voiced in an interview with an American newspaper, provoked instant reactions from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, the three most prominent members of the alliance, who have endured much of the fiercest fighting in southern Afghanistan.

The Guardian reports on the growing spat between Britain and Russia

'Now we really have a crisis' - Russia's man in London leaving the Foreign Office yesterday

The diplomatic standoff with Russia entered a dangerous new phase yesterday as British officials denounced "a pattern of intimidation" by Russia's security services against British Council staff.
The Foreign Office complained of unacceptable behaviour, after Russians working at British Council offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were called in for questioning by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, and visited at home by interior ministry officials.

Russian cops hold Neil Kinnock's son in latest spat reports the Mirror

Neil Kinnock's son Stephen has been arrested in Russia - believed to be the latest victim of the tit-for-tat diplomatic war with Britain.
He was held by police for an hour on Tuesday night in St Petersburg, where he is a director of the British Council, which is chaired by his father.
Former Labour leader Neil was said to be furious last night that a member of his family had been targeted.

The Guardian reports that

Riot police move in as Kenya unrest grows

Kenya's simmering political stand-off erupted into street violence yesterday as police used teargas and live rounds to snuff out opposition plans to stage three days of protests against the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.
At least one person was killed in Kisumu, the main opposition stronghold in north-west Kenya, and half a dozen were wounded in confrontations across the country. Riot police locked down low-income estates in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa, preventing thousands from marching to rallies in the city centres.

Mass blood tests for Naples residents reports the Telegraph

Doctors in Naples have begun screening residents for deadly dioxins as fears grow that the city's rubbish crisis would unleash a "chemical bomb".The mass blood tests started after hysteria gripped the city that the piles of festering rubbish in the streets would contaminate water and poison food.
As the rubbish crisis in the city entered its fourth week, more than 200,000 tons of refuse still lie uncollected.

The Indy as does many of the papers reports on

Scientologists try to block Cruise YouTube rant

Scientologists are attempting to block the spread of a video clip in which Tom Cruise zealously espouses his faith in the church.
"If you're on board, you're on board, just like the rest of us," he tells those of wavering faith. We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we can rehabilitate criminals and unite cultures," he says.
Mr Cruise's emotional testimonial is accompanied by a guitar riff playing the theme from Mission: Impossible. Cruise, a Scientologist for 20 years, has recently emerged as one of the controversial church's most outspoken proselytisers. Some suggest that the actor, 45, has been elevated to one of the highest echelons of the secretive church, cryptically known as OT-VII.

The Mail asks

is Tom Cruise out of control?

Sources in the U.S. say that he has had trouble sleeping and been tearful at times - much to the distress of his young wife, Katie Holmes.
For just as Katie, 29, reinvents herself as a glamorous, strong young woman, all toned biceps and couture frocks, Tom is entrenched in a crisis. The crisis has been spearheaded by this week's leaked internet video, showing the star making a bizarre rant in praise of Scientology, on top of the stress caused by the publication of a scandal-drenched biography and his continually misfiring career.

Sport takes the front pages

Capello hit by £7m tax probe says the Sun

ENGLAND soccer boss Fabio Capello could face JAIL in Italy – over a suspected £7million tax dodge.
Officials in the 61-year-old’s homeland were last night investigating claims he illegally hid a fortune in an offshore account.
The probe is a new headache for FA chief Brian Barwick – who lured the ex-Real Madrid supremo to replace flop Steve McClaren.

The Times meanwhile has a front page picture of the return of Kevin Keegan to Newcastle

Newcastle hails Kevin Keegan’s return

Lightning struck for the third time on Tyneside last night as Kevin Keegan made an extraordinary return to Newcastle United, the club he has twice previously hoisted from the doldrums. In scenes reminiscent of the mania that greeted “King Kev’s” earlier incarnations at St James’ Park, supporters swarmed around the stadium. “I’m back home,” Keegan said.

The Times reports that

Leslie Ash gets £5m payout from hospital where she caught MRSA

Leslie Ash, the actress who contracted an infection similar to MRSA in hospital, has been awarded a record-breaking compensation package after suffering years of paralysis in her lower body.
The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital agreed yesterday to pay Ms Ash £5 million for the “shortcomings in her care” while she was a patient.

The Mail claims

1,000 dentists have quit since botched NHS shake-up...TWICE official estimates, latest figures reveal
More than 1,000 dentists have stopped providing NHS care since the introduction of a controversial contract, the British Dental Association claimed.
The figure is twice as high as official estimates from the Health Department and it is thought many other dentists are no longer accepting new NHS patients.

The Guardian reports that

Spanish discord kills new lyrics for anthem

When the proposed new lyrics for the Spanish national anthem were revealed at the end of last week, it looked like a centuries-old quirk of history had finally been resolved. But the four short verses lasted all of five days. They were withdrawn yesterday amid accusations that they were reminiscent of Spain's rightwing dictatorship and failed to represent the country's regional differences.

Finally the Telegraph reports

Coming soon, an X-ray vision gun

The superhero power to see through walls will soon be within the grasp of ordinary mortals, thanks to a new hand-held X-ray scanner.Inventors hope the gadget could revolutionise police work and Customs searches by allowing officers to seek out contraband, weapons, bombs or hidden people.The LEXID device sends out low-level X-rays which are collected in a lens based on the design of a lobster's eye.